Squidly’s Shaman PvP Tips #2: Resto Shaman PvP specs?

It’s a doozy because I don’t have a simple answer right now, but since when has ignorance ever stopped me posting a “guide”?

Maybe if Jagerbombz was still writing Shaman stuff he could fill us in. Maybe one of the other Resto bloggers out there will know. Maybe the answer is in your head.

I sort of figure that there is a bucket load of knowledge out there amongst the 12 million (12,000,000 seems bigger doesn’t it?) WoW players and someone will have a definitive answer.

Meanwhile I am always open to speculation, shooting my damn fool mouth off and near enough is good enough (the kind of thinking that has made our once great nation Australia).

The way I see it there are two different styles of BGs, which could (ie: don’t need to, but could) support two different spec styles.

Zerg BGs

Up close and Frost Shockable.

Zerg BGs

These BGs are the big ones, your Alterac Valleys, Wintergraps, Strand of the Ancients etc.

There are a pile of targets apart from yourself for opponents to hit and a pile of teammates for you to heal.

In the case of Alterac Valley and Wintergrasp (if you win and cant be bothered respecing) you even have a couple of raid bosses to defeat.

Therefore I think your bog standard raid healing spec will do you fine. If you can beg, borrow or steal (err earn, craft or buy) some resilience gear all the better.

Healing and staying power will be the order of the day. You want to make sure your heals are effective and your mana pool is deep enough (and replenishing fast enough) for you to pump out the heals – you may not get to rest for a drink for a while.

Up close and Frost Shockable.

These are the smaller BGs, your Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm.

The percentage of healers to damage dealers may be the same, but there are less bodies to target, so you are more likely to be one of the targets.

Resto Killing Machine

Did I tell you I solo’d a Rogue in EotS the other day? Poor bugger… My health kept going up, his kept going down… Fire totem here, Flame shock there… It wasn’t pretty or fast, but he can shove is poisons where the sun doesn’t shine.

So your spec needs to be a bit more versatile, both through taking more of the survival oriented talents as well as pumping your damage capabilities (especially if they can have a neutral or positive impact on your healing).

Holding down the fort while keeping up the health

You want to know that when you are the last one at the flag/resource/tower (cause those bloody dps you kept alive just ran off in search of more honor kills), that you can solo at least one opponent wile screaming invectives into BG chat and pinging your mini map for support like the mad (angry that is, I would never call you insane to your face) little Shaman you are.

Run Resto Run!

You want to know that when you are the last one standing in the enemy’s flag room that you can pick up that flag and have a fair chance at surviving through judicious use of instant ghost wolf, earth shields, totems etc.

You grab the flag, ES yourself, get outside hit ghost wolf and your off… inc gankers, drop an earthbind totem and instantly back to shadow wolf to leave them rotting in your snare.

What are we here for again?

Of course you don’t want to forget your primary reason for being there, healing, otherwise you might as well just spec Elemental or Enhancement. So your spec would still be mainly Resto, just with a few tweaks so you cam grab the occasional “defensive” ;-) killing blow yourself.

Remember you may be healing in your flag room, but it’s still your job to stop that enemy flag carrier, rock that frost shock and earthbind totem!

Bring a smile to your face lightning quick

Let me tell you now, nothing will bring a smile to your face more than a pinch hit Chain Heal followed by a devastating Chain Lightning.

If it’s you and a DPS against 2 opponents, rather than playing 2v2, play 3v2. Your heals + DPS & your team mates against their sorry corpses.

If it’s 2v3, then I guess things are more even, but you want to make sure you spec keeps the fight even.

Elemental my dear Resto

Of course you wouldn’t forget you Elementals would you? There is something about the Earth Elemental that causes people to forget their human opponents…

I tried reason (After Reincarnation) that in AV with the Horde as well….
But seems that they don’t speak common
and have some problem with people surrounded by blue bubble and on the end of the Juses Beam.:( seems that the only way we can communicate with them are lighting blot and fireball….

Here’s mine. HW is great for powering through MS effects, though I’ve toyed with taking away the HW talents and instead getting 5 Totemic Focus, 2 Nature’s Blessing and 1 Imp. Earth Shield so I could get the Earth Shield Glyph instead. So far the hps of a Riptide => HW => HW is too powerful a tool to ignore, particularly with the HW glyph and Ancestral healing keeping me up as well.

With Ancestral Healing and all our crit from talents, any heal we cast has the potential to heal multiple targets, so you can keep up a group even when casting CH is too clumsy. (Hai rogues!)

Even though I’m a Retpal, I rarely have the time or ability to heal others since I’m so busy in the center of it. Mayhaps if I focus on healing others, I might be of better use.

And well, if they come directly after me, I’m not really all that squishy ;)

But on to the BIG Q of the day: I don’t “speak Shammy” so I don’t know what all your acronyms & slang for things are: jesus beams, etc. or how shammies can interrupt. What are your “basic” spells for things?

Interrupts?

Heals?

I run with a Shammy, and anything you can help with would be a MASSIVE help!

I just dinged 70, so the thought of going toe to toe with some 79’s has me cringing, so maybe being a heal-retadin may be my best hope for now…

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